Poet. Essayist. Professor. Editor.

Loved Ones: “Snow Drops,” by Louise Glück

For National Poetry Month, I am going to record some of my favorite poems and talk a little about what they mean to me. I hope you enjoy!

I encountered The Wild Iris for the first time in 1995, in a graduate poetry workshop at Southern Connecticut State University. My first marriage was brand new and also about to end, and my father had died two years before. This book and this poem, “Snow Drops,” broke me open, painfully, blessedly. It’s a cliché to say it saved me, but that’s exactly what it did.

Snow Drops

Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know
what despair is; then
winter should have meaning for you.

I did not expect to survive,
earth suppressing me. I didn’t expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
in the cold light
of earliest spring–

4 thoughts on “Loved Ones: “Snow Drops,” by Louise Glück”

Oh, thank you, Sheila. Your recording is lovely and I feel each word. Wonderful voice. How did you do this? Did you speak directly into the computer or do you have a special digital mike? My friends here want me to record my work. Some have vision problems and aren’t able to read my book.

Thanks, Marian! It was easy. I just use the Voice Memo app that came on my iPhone and then uploaded the file to Sound Cloud, where I have an account. You should definitely record some of yours! I will be a happy listener if you do. 🙂